Nicole Car (born 1985) is an Australian

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

tic soprano. She has performed leading roles at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August ...

Bavarian State Opera The Bayerische Staatsoper is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bayerische Staatsorchester. History The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under Ele ...

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the D ...

Semperoper Dresden The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the T ...

Opéra national de Paris The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

, The Dallas Opera, and

Opera Australia Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder ...

. Car is particularly associated with the roles of Tatyana in ''

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Евгений Оне́гин, ромáн в стихáх, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn, r=Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh) is ...

'', Mimì in ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...

'', Marguerite in ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'', Fiordiligi in '' Così fan tutte'', Donna Elvira in '' Don Giovanni'' and Micaëla in '' Carmen'', and has also given noted performances as Marguerite de Valois in ''

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...

'', and the title roles in ''

Luisa Miller ''Luisa Miller'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''Kabale und Liebe'' (''Intrigue and Love'') by the German dramatist Friedrich von Schiller. Verdi's initial idea for ...

'' and ''

Thaïs Thaïs or Thais ( el, Θαΐς; flourished 4th century BC) was a famous Greek ''hetaira'' who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns. Likely from Athens, she is most famous for instigating the burning of Persepolis. At the time, Thaï ...

''.

Early life and education

Car attended Strathmore Secondary School, where she performed in school musicals. In Year 12 she sang at the Victorian Schools' Spectacular, singing jazz songs from the 1930s and 40s. At age 17, Car saw her first opera, ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...

'', in her final year of high school in Melbourne. She then completed a Bachelor of Music at the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

, rather than the legal degree her parents had hoped for.

Career

Car's debut in a major role was Donna Anna in '' Don Giovanni'' with

Victorian Opera Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as ...

in 2009. She began performing with Opera Australia from 2014 debuting a number of roles including the title parts of '' La traviata'', ''

'' and ''

'' (winning her first Helpmann Award for the latter); Fiordiligi ('' Così fan tutte''), Tatyana (''

''), Micaëla ('' Carmen''), Mimi (''

''), Marguerite (''

''), Pamina (''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

''), Leila (''

The Pearl Fishers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''), and both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (''Don Giovanni''). She made her American debut singing the Countess in '' The Marriage of Figaro'' at Dallas Opera in 2014, a role previously performed for Opera Australia. Car made her Covent Garden debut in 2015, singing Micaëla in Bizet's ''Carmen'', followed by Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin'' and a new production of ''La bohème'' as Mimì in the 2017/18 season. In 2020 she returned to the

as Mimì. Car had previously performed the role of Micaëla for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour in 2013. In a review of her first recording, ''The Kiss'', Car is described as possessing "a lovely lyric soprano". In 2019 Car visited Australia to sing the role of Ellen in a recital version of the

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

opera ''

Peter Grimes ''Peter Grimes'', Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem '' The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional ...

'' with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In Sydney she was joined by her husband and sang a series of concerts together. In the 2019/2020 season, she performed Tatyana to Étienne Dupuis' Eugene Onegin for Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. The duo went on to sing in Eugene Onegin in ''at'' Montreal Opera House in 2019, with Car making her Canadian debut. In Germany, Car has performed at the

(Tatyana, Fiordiligi, Marguerite.Verdi Gala, Thaïs), the

Semperoper The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the ...

Dresden (Mimì, Fiordiligi) and the

in Munich (Tatyana). Car made her debut at the

in New York in the role of Mimì (''La bohème'') in September 2018, receiving critical acclaim from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' for her "fine-grained tone and nuanced acting". She returned to the Met in 2020 as Fiordiligi in ''Così fan tutte''. Performances at the Paris Opera have included Tatyana, Mimì, Micaëla and her role debut as Elisabetta di Valois in ''

'' in the 2019/2020 season. She also sang the role of Donna Elvira in ''Don Giovanni'' in a new production at the Paris Opera which was broadcast by many international cinemas. In April 2020 Car launched the Freelance Artist Relief Australia fund, a crowd-sourced trust dedicated to supporting Australian freelance artists during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Opera roles

* Adalgisa, ''

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy *Norma (constellation) *555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Lazi ...

'' (Bellini) * Countess, '' The Marriage of Figaro'' (Mozart) * Donna Anna, '' Don Giovanni'' (Mozart) * Donna Elvira, ''Don Giovanni'' (Mozart) * Fiordiligi, '' Così fan tutte'' (Mozart) * Leïla, ''

'' (Bizet) * Luisa Miller, ''

'' (Verdi) * Micaëla, '' Carmen'' (Bizet) * Mimì, ''

'' (Puccini) * Pamina, ''

'' (Mozart) * Tatyana, ''

'' (Tchaikovsky) * Thaïs, ''

'' (Massenet) * Violetta Valéry, '' La traviata'' (Verdi)

Personal life

Car is married to Canadian baritone Étienne Dupuis. They have one child, Noah. Car was previously married to engineer Robin Stephenson.

Discography

Albums

Awards and nominations

* At 21, while in her final year at the Victorian College of the Arts, Car won the 2007 Herald Sun Aria, performing arias by

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

and

Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...

. In making the announcement, chief adjudicator Anson Austin said she has "a wonderful talent and a most beautiful voice". * In 2013 Car won joint first prize in the Neue Stimmen vocal competition held in Germany.

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are presented annually from 1987 by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing ...

(ARIA). ! , - ,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, ''This Kiss'' ,

Best Classical Album The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album was awarded from 1962 to 2011. The award had several minor name changes: *From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical *In 1964 and 1977 it wa ...

, , ARIA Award previous winners. , -

Helpmann Awards

* Car won a Helpmann Award in 2016 for Best Female Performer in an Opera for her role in ''

'' for Opera Australia. * She won the 2018 Helpmann Award for Best Female Performer in an Opera for ''La traviata'', Opera Australia.

References

External links

*
Profile at Opera Australia
* , "Sì, mi chiamano Mimì" from ''La bohème'', Royal Opera House, 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Car, Nicole 1985 births Living people Singers from Melbourne Australian operatic sopranos 21st-century Australian women opera singers Victorian College of the Arts alumni Helpmann Award winners